Waypoints: The Danger of Misplaced Loyalty

Have you ever aligned yourself to someone or something that in retrospect you wish you hadn’t? This can happen when we connect to a person or a cause, or it often happens when we depend upon someone’s word or character or abilities only to find we got nailed. It can occur when we find out that the charity we felt so good about was not truly getting the funds to the people they claimed to be supporting, or it can happen when we think everything we hear or read must be true since it is being reported by “respectable” news organizations. All through our lives we will need to make decisions about where to place our trust and our loyalties. In many ways, this is a stewardship issue!
 
Kim was in my 7th grade geometry class and she was absolutely amazing as far as I was concerned. What I meant by that is she was good at math, liked sports, was nice to me and when she smiled at me my stomach felt weird. Over the course of the year I found myself appreciating her more and more. One day I shared with Jeff that I liked the way Kim dealt with the Pythagorean Theorem and I thought she looked nice too. The next day I walked into class and the chalkboard read, “Nick loves Kim!” That is a painful childhood memory of misplaced loyalty.
 
I’m over Jeff’s stomping on my heart and soul but it is a simple picture of what can happen when we place trust and loyalty where it doesn’t belong. All through our lives we will make choices that will align us with things. We all need to do this as humans, but as followers of Jesus we need to think about it also in terms of worship and stewardship of our lives.
 
This Sunday’s section of Luke is the 16th chapter. Many people consider this one of the most complex chapters in all of Scripture, but the main theme of this section is really quite obvious.
 
13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
 
Jesus then goes on to describe how a rich man placed his loyalty with the “pleasures of this world” while ignoring God’s eternal kingdom and caring for others in this life. Jesus speaks in verse 13 about placing confidence in money as opposed to God, but He didn’t intend for us to limit this teaching to money alone.
 
What are you depending upon instead of God?
Where are your loyalties that might be misplaced?
Are your alliances delivering or should you look elsewhere – maybe God’s promises?
 
This world and your life can be filled with many disappointments if your main loyalties in life are anything other than God and His kingdom. People and human institutions will always fall short of the need for our souls to find our primary allegiance to our God.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Nick